Wednesday, November 22, 2006

An old news I just read today.. really happy.. we need a govt which can do this...George Iype in Kochi

September 02, 2006

The Communist Party of India (Marxists)-led government in Kerala headed byChief Minister V S Achuthanandan is not just against American cola majors --Coca-Cola and PepsiCo -- alone.

Nearly three weeks after the Achuthanandan government banned the sale andmanufacture of Coca-Cola and PepsiCo products in Kerala, Microsoft has beenlogged out of the state-run schools.

Here on, nearly 1.5 million students in the 2,650 government andgovernment-aided high schools in the state will no longer use the Windowsplatform for computer education. Instead, they have switched over to thefree GNU/Linux software.

"We have decided that we will use only free software for computer educationin Kerala schools. We have implemented the Linux platform in high schools;it will be implemented in other schools step by step," Kerala EducationMinister M A Baby told rediff.com.

He said an estimated 56,000 teachers in high schools are getting trained onthe Linux platform.

Asked if it is a deliberate decision to log out Microsoft from the state-runschools, the minister said, the plan is not targetted at any IT company."Our policy is to migrate computer education to free software platforms. Wewant to make Kerala the FOSS (Free and Open Software Systems) destination inIndia. That is all," he added.

But officials said two factors have influenced the Communist government togo in for the Linux platform by abandoning the Microsoft product.

First, Chief Minister Achuthanandan has been a votary of free software.While in Opposition till May this year, Achuthanandan had sternly opposedthe then Congress government's decision to join hands with Microsoft tolaunch the IT at School programme.

Second, free software guru Richard Stallman is virtually the consultant tothe Kerala government's IT initiatives. Two weeks, back Stallman visited thestate and convinced the government to switch over to free software systemsin the educational institutions to begin with.

Stallman, in fact, gave a presentation as to how free software has been anexciting education and computing model in a Spanish province.

Officials say political parties in Kerala have been using the Microsoftversus Linux issue to settle scores. "The Congress government had launchedan IT literacy project with the support of Intel and Microsoft. Now theCommunist government has abandoned it, and wants to migrate everything tofree software platforms," an official at the Kerala IT Mission Secretariatpointed out.

While in Opposition, Achuthanandan had strongly opposed the project sayingthe agreement between the Kerala government and the Microsoft for trainingteachers under the IT at School project was fraught with danger.

"Microsoft boss Bill Gates wants to push his operating system using theservices of software developers who had adopted it and this was made clearby several experts in the field. The government should, therefore, be verycareful when dealing with Microsoft," Achuthanandan had then written to thegovernment headed by Congress chief minister A K Antony.

Political issues apart, the Linux PC dealers are excited about thegovernment decision to promote Linux platforms in schools.

"We are getting lots of enquiries and orders for pre-loaded Linux operatingsystem. The hardware sales have gone up because of this," P K Harikrishnan,president, Kerala Computer Manufacturers' and Dealers' Association said.